With the development in cultured fishery of Pisces and Crustacea, frequent incidences of viral and bacterial infection became prevalent, causing significant damage. Piscine disease such as tuberculoid and streptococcus infection of yellowtail, Favobacterium psychrophilim infection of sweetfish, iridovirus infection of red sea bream and yellowtail, and Crustacean disease such as acute viremia or vibrionic disease of kuruma prawn, cause severe damage. Incidence rates are high in diseases of livestock, including cattle, swine, and fowl, such as diarrhea of calf, atrophic rhinitis and pleuropneumonia of swine, infectious bronchitis and E. coli infection of fowl. For these bacterial diseases, antibiotics and synthetic antibacterial agents are being used; however, resistant strains have emerged, and satisfactory therapeutic effect has not been achieved. Also, residual drug remained after use in the body of fish and livestock have caused public health problem; therefore, preventive measure that do not depend on the use of chemical treatment is necessary.
Effective therapeutic treatment for viruses has not yet been discovered for viral diseases of Pisces and Crustacea, and the progress is slow in the development of vaccines. Vaccines are used in some viral diseases of livestock, but as in cases of avian infectious bronchitis, the effectiveness is not sufficient; thus, there are still frequent incidences.
On the other hand, human infectious disease such as MRSA infection, VRE infection, enterohemorrhagic E. coli infection, tuberculosis, influenza, and diseases such as cancer are frequent. Many of the frequently occurring diseases of today are caused by bacteria, which have gained resistance to drugs previously effective in treating diseases caused by these bacteria; therefore, novel compound with antibacterial activity to these resistant strains are expected. Moreover, as the background of above mentioned disease occurring frequently, decreased human immune function due to stress and other factors are accounted for. Unless these underlying problems are solved, antibiotics and conventional anticancer agent cannot be the effective countermeasures in current state.
For the purpose of stimulating immune functions and preventing infectious diseases in fishes and shellfishes and animals, using substances such as component of bacterial cell wall from bacillus (Japanese Patent Publication No. 03-173826, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 04-193823), Bifidobacterium thermophilum derived peptidoglycan (Japanese Patent Publication No. 06-25067), and −1, 3-glucan derived from Schizophyllum commune (Japanese Patent Publication No. 06-65649) are already known. Furthermore, swine derived purified plasma (Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-88042) with antibacterial activity and containing antibody to enteropathogenic E. coli, is being used for the purpose of preventing E. coli infection of neonatal animals, and for the purpose of increasing palatability of feed to piglets, proteins (Japanese Patent Publication No. 07-16366) with albumin and globulin isolated from swine or bovine blood as major ingredient have been in use.
The substance of the present invention, does not show antibacterial activity to enteropathogenic E. coli, or other bacteria, or does not prevent E. coli infection or other bacterial disease of neonatal animals by agglutinating E. coli or other bacteria by specific antigen, but peptide contained in swine plasma prevent infectious diseases of animals and humans by fortifying non-specific and specific bio-defense mechanisms such as phagocytotic activity, complement activity, lysozyme activity, cytokine production ability, and antibody production ability by acting on granulocyte of Crustacea, leukocyte of Pisces, and T lymphocyte, B lymphocyte, and macrophage of vertebrate including humans. Therefore, said substance of present invention differs in mechanism of action as well as object of usage from swine derived purified plasma (Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-88042), previously mentioned. Thus, said substance of present invention that stimulate immune function is not a substance present in swine or bovine globulin (antibody, or antibacterial substance), but peptide in albumin, as clearly disclosed in embodiments. Moreover, since the major constituent of present invention stimulate immune function of animals and humans, present invention differs in terms of effective constituent and object of usage from the substance of [Japanese Patent Publication No. 07-16366], previously mentioned. Therefore, said substance of present invention is an immunostimulator that actively stimulate immune function of animals and humans, and unrelated to immunoglobulin (antibodies) or palatability enhancing substance.
Recently, as substances to strengthen human immune function, Agaricus blazei, -carotene, chitin, and chitosan among others are used; however, these immunostimulator differs from antibiotics or antibody in such way that they do not show increasing effect depending on increased dose of intake, and the effect is not displayed unless appropriate dose is taken [Chihara G. The mechanism of bio-defense. ed.: Mizuno—et al., (in Japanese) Tokyo, University of Tokyo Press; 1983: 302–318, and Takahashi Y et al. Gekkan Kaiyo (Marine Monthly, in Japanese). 1998; 14(suppl): 154–158]. Therefore, the current state, which sales are conducted without any research on upper limit and lower limit of effective dose, is quite problematic.
As described above, numerous cases of infection occurred among Pisces, Crustacea, and other animal, cause significant damage. As the background of these incidence, the decrease of immune function due to breeding in small area and in crowded condition is considered. It is thus the object of the present invention to provide substance for Pisces, Crustacea, and other animal to be bred safe and free from public health problem such as residual drug, while preventing infection by markedly increasing immune function that is inherent to fishes and shellfishes and animals.
With respect to the human conditions, various types of stress are exerted upon humans due to economic depression and complication of social structure, and decrease of immune function occur with aging; consequently, incidence of infections that were previously not problematic, or of cancer are frequent. In order to prevent these diseases, many substances that stimulate immune function have been on market as food or pharmaceuticals, but these are sold without the sure knowledge of appropriate dose. As already described, immunostimulator has upper limit and lower limit in its effective dose, and unless administered within this appropriate dose range, immune function is not stimulated. Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide substance and method to maintain health by properly activating human immune function that tends to decrease due to stress and aging, with the appropriate intake of said substance of present invention.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to prevent infectious disease and cancer of humans and all animals such as Crustacean, Pisces, Aves, and mammals, by fortifying non-specific and specific bio-defense mechanisms such as phagocytotic activity, complement activity, lysozyme activity, phenol oxidase activity, cytokine production ability, and antibody production ability, using the action of peptide contained in swine plasma on granulocyte of Crustacea, leukocyte of Pisces, and T lymphocyte, B lymphocyte, NK cells and macrophage of mammals and humans.